Revenues from mobile entertainment content and services are expected to increase by more than 15pc this year from US$33.2bn to nearly US$38.4bn, a new report from Juniper Research suggests.
The research and analytical services company said this continuing growth comes despite the uncertain economic climate, demonstrating both the relative robustness of the mobile content industry and the opportunities in comparatively untapped segments, such as mobile gambling.
The report found the transition to a predominantly app store-led content delivery model has greatly benefitted smaller content developers as their opportunity for end-user visibility has dramatically increased. For example, in the mobile games segment, developers such as Rovio (with Angry Birds) and Lima Sky (Doodle Jump) have each achieved more than 10m paid downloads.
A variety of larger digital content publishers and service providers have also profited from the greater levels of consumer awareness and use of mobile content and applications.
Juniper said there has been a surge of activity on both browser-based applications and native smartphone apps in the mobile gambling segment. Mobile gambling has been given an additional boost by deregulation of the European remote gambling laws. A number of US state lottery providers are considering the deployment of mobile lottery services in the medium term.
“While revenues from traditional staples of the mobile entertainment sector – such as ringtones and logos – have gone into steep decline over the past couple of years, the tremendous scaling up of activity in games, streamed music and social media has driven strong overall growth,” said the report’s author, Dr Windsor Holden. “Furthermore, as major retailers, brands and media organisations increasingly utilise mobile content to drive awareness of and engagement with their products, this growth will continue.”
The Mobile Entertainment white paper is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the study, Mobile Entertainment Strategies: Markets, Opportunities & Forecasts 2011-2015.
Article courtesy of Businessandleadership.com
